Disclosed features concern medical training equipment and methods, and more particularly medical training equipment and methods used for training in minimally invasive surgical procedures and techniques.
Minimally invasive surgical instrument port placement in a patient's anatomy, setup positioning of a minimally invasive surgical robotic system, and coupling the robotic system to cannulas positioned in the ports (“docking” the robot to the cannulas) are important tasks for surgeons and medical personnel to learn. Physical anatomic models dedicated for use in training these tasks or that provide standardized ways to evaluate these tasks do not exist. Current anatomical simulation models (e.g., from the Chamberlain Group, Limbs & Things LTD, Pacific Research Laboratories, Inc. (Sawbones®), ProMIS™ Simulator from CAE Healthcare of CAE, Inc., SimSurgery® SEP products, and the like) may simulate a portion of an abdomen, but such models do not provide features associated with these tasks or the necessary standardization required to measure performance parameters over time and populations. In some cases, for example, port locations on traditional laparoscopic models may not be appropriate for robotic surgery. Furthermore, many of the existing models have instrument handles (such as laparoscopic tool handles) rigidly attached to port locations so that robotic trocars or other components cannot be attached to the ports.
The solutions developed thus far have not been specifically targeted to robotic surgery and instead have tried to encompass general surgery, laparoscopic surgery, and to a limited extent robotic surgery. This lack of dedicated robotic surgical training equipment has led to training exercises that are not ideally suited for the unique considerations of robotic surgery. For example, most other systems use a “skin” to lay over large openings in an abdomen model, and port locations must be placed through this large piece of skin. This situation often leads to only a single set of holes and lack of instruction through different choices, setups, etc. Students are not provided the opportunity to try various port placement patterns and to learn the benefits and disadvantages of specific patterns vis-à-vis a particular surgical task to be performed.
During training to use a minimally invasive surgical system, many surgeons and medical personnel initially have difficulty with port placement, robot setup, and cannula docking tasks, and such difficulty may needlessly extend operating times and may even affect a surgeon's willingness to adopt such technology. In addition, personnel associated with training these tasks have identified a lack of proficiency in port placement and cannula docking as the major limiter for useful training outside of a dedicated training facility, such as at a hospital location. What is needed is dedicated training equipment and associated procedures to help surgeons and other medical personnel become proficient in these and related tasks.